RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)

Nothing if not ambitious, photographer Richard Avedon relished the editorial freedom that he was given in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar. This suite of contacts is from the imaginative, cinematic shoot he conceived as if it were a film for the September 1959 issue of the magazine, with Hepburn cast as ‘Jemima Jones’ and Jemima’s cat, Simone, as ‘Herself’. An editorial introduction explained: ‘The rolicky
French love farce that leads this issue…is the brain child of star photographer
Richard Avedon, who directed it.’ Most unusually, the cover was purely
typographical, replicating the style of the billing outside a movie theatre.